MBLC Celebrates 125 Years

1918

Camp Library, Camp Devens, Massachusetts1
By June of 1918, library buildings had been erected at 36 camps and work was underway at another three. At Camp Devens, a building originally used as a chapel was turned over to the American Library Association for use as a hospital branch library.2

TODAY: Massachusetts libraries lend materials in all formats and languages, meeting the personal, recreational, and professional needs of patrons throughout the Commonwealth.In 1918: The Massachusetts Free Library Commission had about 130 sets of picture postcards of present-day France, accompanied by illustrated pamphlets on the country and the then-contested territory of Alsace-Lorraine. These sets were provided by the French government to the Children's Museum in Jamaica Plain, which in turn offered them to the Commission for distribution to Massachusetts libraries upon request.3

What else happened in 1918?

The Massachusetts Library Aid Association, a small group of friends of libraries from throughout the state, came into being in 1918.3

On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, Germany signed an armistice agreement with the Allies based on Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points.4

On August 17, the first Boston cases of the 1918 flu pandemic were reported.5

This website, and other programs of the MBLC, is funded in part with funds from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, a federal agency that fosters innovation, leadership, and a lifetime of learning.